Wood To Redesign Colombia’s Largest Oil Refinery

By Simon West

Wood has secured a contract from Colombian state energy firm Ecopetrol to carry out detailed engineering design work for upgrades at Barrancabermeja, the South American country’s largest oil refinery.

The UK-headquartered engineering and consulting company has been charged with redesigning the infrastructure at the 100-year-old facility to enable the production of cleaner fuels. The project, known as Línea Base de Calidad de Combustibles (LBCC) in Spanish, is part of Colombia’s push to improve fuel quality and cut sulfur content in gasoline in line with its emissions targets.

Wood said more than 250 of its employees would support the project, with first production of cleaner gasoline at the site expected by 2030.

“Wood’s redesign of the Barrancabermeja refinery is crucial to Ecopetrol’s 2050 goal of net-zero emissions,” said John Day, president of Projects Western Hemisphere at Wood. “We have a two-decade history of partnering with Ecopetrol and for the past five years, we have been dedicated to upgrading the clean fuels program.”

According to Ecopetrol, Barrancabermeja, in northeastern Santander department, supplies nearly 80% of Colombia’s domestic fuel demand. It consists of 54 refining units, 32 industrial services units, an optimization center from which its operations are controlled remotely and securely, and 351 storage tanks.

Colombia’s other major refinery is Reficar, located in Cartagena on the country’s northern coast.

Read more: GEODIS and Ecopetrol: A Project Logistics Powerhouse

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